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sEWPORT ROCKS AND RESIDENCES 



LITTLE RHODY'S VARIED FASCINATIONS 

It has often been said- -and it is probably true — that no similar area in the United States is as 
diversified as is Rhode Island, in landscape and contour, in foliage, in flora and fauna and in geological 
''ormation. From these facts it has come to pass that no State in the Union possesses greater diversity 
of opportunities for summer pastimes and recreation. 

Variety, indeed, appears to be the most striking characteristic of the smallest of all the States. Its 
industries, its institutions, and its people are astonishingly varied. Its opinions, its occupations and all 
the manifestations of its existence have been unusual and individual, through the years of its history. 
'•Of all the American States." writes James Brice, -'Rhode Island is that one that best deserves the 
study of the philosophic historian. 




^ NASMUCH as Rhode Island is so very densely populated 
'''■' and is surrounded by such very rich and populous States, 
It is not to be wondered at that her beaches and her 
wave-sw^ept rocks, her lakes and her hills, and the winding 
shores of her glorious great bay furnish inspiration for 
scores of thousands who make their summer homes amid 
her charms. 
Rhode Island is milder and less variable in climate than the other New 
England States, although there is considerable difference between the northern 
and the southern portions, and as a consequence, much of the wild foliage, 
especially of "South County," is of a distinctively southern type not else- 
where found in New England. Here, however, it grows beside the char- 
acteristic foliage of the North, some of which finds its southern limit in 
Rhode Island. 

There is a splendid assortment of the beautiful things of nature; broad 
glistening beaches, and wild, wooded hills, rocky cliffs overhanging the 

3 



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ocean, hundreds of miles of bay shores, winding, rushing rivers, and dense 
tangled forests where the advent of man is as yet scarcely known. 

There are many lakes and there are barren sand dunes; there are exquisite 
and fashionable summer places that vie with any in the world, and there are 
secluded camps where nature is untroubled in her luxuriance. 

Although Rhode Island is growing in density of population faster than 
any other state of the Union, she nevertheless has a larger proportion of 
wooded area than any other, and almost within sight of her bustling cities, 
there are trails through the tanglewood that have survived in much of their 
primitive wildness, since the days when the red men made them. There are 
quaint hamlets, lovely farms and everything that is oldest and newest in our 
civilization. There are splendid modern roads that give ready access to 




VL HARBOR OF REFUGE" 

4 



-POINT JUDITH 



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every part of the State and the two adjoining States. Rhode Island is an 
automobihst's paradise, and all roads lead to Providence. 

For the poor as well as the rich Rhode Island is lavish with her summer 
offerings. The trolley car and the humble bicycle, will take one out from 
the center of her "Metropolitan District" to varied scenes of beauty and 
delight. The man with the big steam yacht who smokes long cigars upon 
its deck, finds Narragansett and Newport much to his liking. The sturdy 
chap with his feet braced against the tiller of a cat boat, or the captain of 
a little green canoe working his way down a dancing stream under over- 
hanging boughs, find equal opportunities for unalloyed delight. 

There are great and splendid hotels, and there are tenting places on the 
hillsides where thousands find health and strength and happiness. 

Narragansett Bay, the chief asset of picturesque as well as commercial 
interest in the State, is about thirty miles long and from two to twelve miles 
wide. Its shores are extremely varied and deeply indented by a multitude 
of small bays and harbors. The three main entrances are deep and direct, 
yet well protected from the ocean by the twolarger islands: — Aquidneck,upon 

5 




UPPER BAY AT SABIX S POI^ 



which Newport is situated ; and Conanicut, upon which is Jamestown. 
There are miles upon miles of shores bordered by beautiful summer estates, 
and fine old towns snugly tucked away behind long headlands. 

In the summer, multitudes of campers occupy all the vantage points that 
are unbuilt, while upon the sparkling waters of the bay vast numbers of 
pleasure boats, from tiny canoes to great crowded excursion steamers are 
forever in the view. Rhode Island is famous for its boating facilities of 
every kind. 

The back country towns present many attractions. Scores of abandoned 
farms, which until the advent of the trolley were as difficult of access as if they 
were hundreds of miles away, have been bought by private clubs and 
individuals for country estates, and there are many nooks and corners that 
yet remain, like islands of wilderness, surrounded by the throbbing sea of 
civilization. The old "South County" in particular is a country of marked 
individuality and charm, and its enthusiastic devotees have built many bunga- 
lows and camps along its bay and ocean fronts and beside the still waters 
of its forest bordered lakes. 

The chief rivers of the State are the Blackstone, the Pawtuxet, the Wood 
River, the Usquepaug, the Queens River and the Pawcatuck. They form 
a network of waterways, by which, with slight "carries," the State may be 




FROM THE CLIFF AT SII.VKI! SI'KINO 




traveled in many directions with as much fascination to the canoeist as may 
the wilds of Ontario or Maine. 

The Indian names of these hills and lakes and streams are a source of 
joy to the stranger who revels in such specimens as Shumunkanuc and 
Watchaug; Quonochontaug and Pausacaco. 

It is not to be wondered at that there are world famous summer clubs, 
like Squantum and Pomham, upon the bay shore; that yachts abound on 
Narragansett's waters; that canoeing and rowing and salt water bathing 
seem to be a second nature to most Rhode Islanders. Nor is it to be won- 
dered at that Rhode Island's skill in naval designing has produced the great 
"cup defenders " that have held supremacy against all foreign challenge. 




II! TOIil'KDO STATIO^ 



Newport, the "Queen of Watering Places" is famous for many things. 
It is the most fashionable resort in America. The "Cottages" or villas of 
its summer residents are magnificent in the extreme. Its cliffs and its beaches, 
its superb ocean drive, and its stately shaded "Avenue," are known through- 
out the world. Its history from its beginning in 1633, is full of incident and 
charm. One of the greatest of naval stations is located here and it is an 
army post of much importance. Fort Adams at the entrance of the harbor 
is one of the strongest defenses in the United States, and the power of the 
government is also represented here by the United States Naval War College; 

8 



the Government Training Station and Torpedo Station ; the Naval Hospital 
and other extensive enterprises. Newport rejoices in the annual "war 
games" of its military and naval forces, which are exceedingly interesting 
features of its summer life. 

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, which destroyed most of its 
commerce, the quaint old town was vastly more important than Providence, 




ranking fourth in the Colonies, and many old buildings of extraordinary 
interest remain, notably the Old State House, ovedooking the Parade, and 
the Henry Bull house on Spring Street. The famous "Old Stone Mill" 
has created a never ending controversy as to its origin. The antiquarian 
and the artist will find quite as much of delight in the old town as the 
general tourist or follower of fashion will in the new. 

The natural setting of Newport, where bay and ocean meet, is exquisite 
in the extreme, and the methods of getting there are most attractive. The 
locality has many natural curiosities, such as the Hanging Rocks, Spouting 
Cave and the Glen. But to ^ 

the tourist, Newport is recom- 
mended for a day's excursion, 
as the hotel accommodations 
are quite inadequate. 

Narragansett Pier is only a 
little less famous than New- 
port. It is celebrated for its 
great hotels, its superb bathing 
beach, its splendid summer 
residences and the varied 
assortment of delightful drives. 




*^^*i^^i 




BRISTOL YACHT CLUB 




A Rhode Island 
Suburban Avenue 






Herreshoff's 

where the Cup 

Defenders are built 





PAWTUXKT COVE AND NKCK UPPER BAY 




The Parade at 

Newport 

Showing Ohver Perry 

Monument 



A Summer 

Day at 
Jamestown 




12 






A Newport 
Garden 




^^-'^ 



13 




It is, indeed, one of the 
most fashionable resorts 
of the East. The out- 
look is directly upon the 
ocean at the mouth of 
the "West Passage" of 
Narragansett Bay. A 
fine promenade extends 
along the rocks south of 
the old "Pier," and a 
famous drive leads to a 
rocky corner of the State 
at Point Judith. 




THE BULL HOUSE 



Iff^f 




Watch Hill is another celebrated hotel 
and cottage resort. It has a fine ocean 
beach and still waters for bathing and 
sailing and it guards the western entrance 
of Long Island Sound. 

Very different from any of these 
places is Block Island, the "Isle of 
Manisees." This is a barren, wind- 
swept isle far out to sea ; — very undulat- 
ing in its surface, with a multitude of 



THE OLD STONE MILL 



"The Avenue ' 
Newport 




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Jti^'uJ 



fresh water ponds 
in the deep hollows 
between its rolling 
hills. On the south 
shore are majestic 
cliffs that are for- 
ever washing away 
and bringing great 
sandbars around to 
the northern end of 
the Island. There 
are numerous big 
hotels, a splendid 
bathing beach and 



some pleasant drives, including 
the one to Beacon Hill, which 
is several hundred feet high. 
A hardy race of mariners 
inhabit the island. Although 
the business of catering to 
summer guests is preeminent, 
the fisheries are of much 
importance. 













OLD COLONIAL RESIDKNCIO, BRISTOL 



Of the smaller and less fashionable resorts, the cottage colonies and the 
places of popular excursions, the mere mention of them would extend far 
beyond the limits of this article. 

To those who know them best, Bristol and Seaconnet, Warwick and 
Saunderstown, Jamestown and Matunuck are magic names. 

But whether one sees fit to dwell amid the abodes of fashion in a marble 
palace upon the cliffs, or finds his ideal of happiness and home in some 
little brown house in the woods by the lakeside, Rhode Island is marvellously 
lavish with her gifts to all who have eyes to see, or the taste to appreciate. 




T?IE SCHOOL SHII' AT NEWPORT 



16 




A LITTLE PAGE OF AMERICAN HISTORY 




F all the States in America, Rhode Island, perhaps, is the 
most entitled to look back over its record, with unalloyed 
satisfaction. With honor and justice it began its career. 
With fearless loyalty and dignity it has continued its 
existence. Its name is writ large in American History. 
The principles of liberty that now guide our government 
are the ones set forth by its founder. The stirring events 
that preceded the formation of the union took place within its borders. 

It struck the first successful blow for freedom when the citizens of Provi- 
dence captured the Gaspee in June, 1772. It was first among the Colonies 
to protest publicly against taxation without represent- 
ation, and sent representatives to England for the pur- 
pose. The first step and the final step in the establish- 
ment of our government were taken bv Rhode Island 
Providence was the scene of the first Colonial Dc^lai 
ation of Independence, and two months before the 
delegates of the various Colonies met 
at Philadelphia to declare their sepa- 
ration from the Mother Country, the 
Legislature of Rhode Island met at 
the old State House in Providence 
and in sublime defiance of ever) 
dictate except its own conception of 
justice and right, formally declared 
Rhode Island to be a sovereign and 




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RHODE ISLAND'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 



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The First Repudiation of Allegiance to Great Britain by any American Colony — Adopted by the 
Rhode Island Colonial Assembly, May 4th, 1776. 



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Pho/ograpli by .lohn 11'. Aiitii 

PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON BY GILBERT STUART AT STATE HOUSE 



independent State. When the war of the Revolution was over, she 
hesitated to surrenderfthe Hberties enjoyed under her charter and was the 
last of all the states to sign the Federal Constitution. 

She was the first to recognize religious liberty and to try in a practical 
way the great experiment of Separatory Church and State. The story of 
liberty cannot properly be written without some reference to the "Lively 
Experiment" instituted by Roger Williams. 

The settlement of Providence stood for a definite ideal. It meant some- 
thing to civilization, for Providence stood for freedom of thought when 
freedom was elsewhere unknown. 

Mighty men have had their daily walks within the lands now dominated 
by the majestic dome of the new Capitol, and mighty deeds have been done 
within Its present sight. 

We might note that the building itself is a very conspicuous and noble 
example of the achievements of the 1 9th century. It is said that its architects 
and Its builders labored upon it with endless zeal to make it their most 
notable work, and to produce the best of which their great art and skill was 
capable. Such a building as this, in one of the old world cities, would be 
marked with three special stars in Baedeker's guide book and its rotunda 
and State reception room would be admired by throngs of worshipping 
American visitors, as examples almost unsurpassed in beautiful architecture. 
Perhaps two or three stars would also be given to Gilbert Stuart's fine 
painting of Washington, which hangs amid 
such fitting surroundings. There are many 
pedestals waiting for occupants upon the 
marble terrace, but it is not through lack of 
Rhode Island heroes that they are still 
unoccupied. 

Short as is the history of this State and 
brief as is its span in the world's great 
history, it has nevertheless been long 
enough for the principles of its great and 
prophetic founder to extend far beyond the 
seas. The cherished purpose is announced 
in the words of one of his distinguished 
associates, upon the facade of the Capitol : 
"To set forth a lively experiment, that a 
most flourishing civil State may stand and 
best be maintained, with full liberty of 




Drawn bij Sidney Hurleiijh 

GILBERT STDART's BIRTHPLACE 



religious concernments. " It is astounding to us now to recall that only such 
a short time ago liberty of thought and freedom to worship as one pleases and 
believes to be right should have been universally denied, yet Providence 
was founded upon an absolutely untried principle that has revolutionized the 
whole science of government. Roger Williams builded even better than he 
knew. No hero of Europe ever set forth a more lively experiment, for not 
only has his "Flourishing State" maintained itself on this great principle, 




FIRST BAPTIST MEETING HOUSE ERECTED 1775 

22 




biit the whole nation is conducted upon this plan, and the voice of liberty 
is calling around the world. We can look back to the career of this man 
among his fellow-men with unalloyed delight, for he was upright and honest; 
and his dealings with the native inhabitants were generous and fair; and so 
Providence not only stood for liberty of conscience but it stood for justice. 

There are other pedestals upon this terrace that might well be occupied 
by figures of those noble red men, whose histories are so worthy; — the chiefs 
who made the settlement of Roger Williams a possibility, — Miantonomi and 
Canonicus. Splendid representatives they were of the race that has almost 
disappeared before the victorious white man. 

A short mile from the northern windows of the State House stands the 
mansion, — now dedicated to the use of all the people, — wherein dwelt the 
first Admiral and Commander-in-chief of the American Navy, that versatile 
man, Esek Hopkins, "master mariner, politician, brigadier general, naval 
officer and philanthropist." The country which has had such a splendid 
Navy as ours, through all these years unconquered, need not look to the 
history of any other land for examples of wadike achievement, but, be it 
remembered, Rhode Island was the first to recommend and urge upon 
Congress the establishment of a Continental Navy. Congress chose Rhode 
Island to execute the plans, and in that navy, of which Esek Hopkins was 
the first Commander, at least three-fourths of all the officers were from the 

23 




RHODE ISLAND TOLONIAL HESIDENCI- 



little State o{ Rhode Island, whose bold mariners were the very vikings of 
the American Revolution. In those troublous times Rhode Island never 
waited for her sister colonies to blaze the trail or point the way. She was 
the first of them all to create a Navy of her own. She gave the command 
to Abraham Whipple who forthwith captured the first prize (the tender of 
the British frigate Rose, then off Newport) and fired the first cannon at the 
Royal Navy, June I 5, 1 775. But Abraham Whipple was no novice. 

From the dome of the State House we may look down upon the site of 
Sabin's Inn, where the men of Providence organized an expedition one June 
night in I 772, and in long boats pulled silently down the river to destroy 
His Majesty's ship, Gaspee. To Capt. Whipple belongs the honor of 
leading the first armed expedition against a naval vessel of the enemy. 
Large as was the reward offered by the British Government for information 
against anyone who had taken part in this expedition, no man in Providence 
was disloyal enough to furnish any assistance. The English Commander, 
however, knew well enough who the leader was, and history records the 
letter that he wrote to him: "You, Abraham Whipple, on the 10th of June, 
1 772, burned His Majesty's vessel, the Gaspee, and I will hang you at the 
yard arm;" and the reply: "Sir James Wallace — Always catch a man 
before you hang him." 

At the foot of Capitol Hill, as commemorated by the tablet upon the 
Board of Trade building, the people of Providence effectively protested 

^24 



against unjust taxation by clumping cargoes of tea into the river, and in the 
older State House, over on the opposite hill, Rhode Island's Legislature 
led the way for the other colonies by instructing its officers to disregard the 
Stamp Act, and insured them immunity for so doing. It was the first to 
support the resolutions passed by the House of Burgesses in Virginia in 1 769, 
declaring that in them alone was vested the right of taxation. Rhode Island 
had explicitly declared the same thing four years earlier. 

The "People of Providence in Town Meeting Assembled," was the first 
authorized body to recommend the permanent establishment of a Continental 
Congress, May 1 7, 1 774, and the General Assembly of Rhode Island on 
June 1 5, 1 774, appointed Samuel Ward and Esek Hopkins as the first 
delegates thereto. 

Near the top of that East Side hill is old University Hall, where once 
were quartered the French allies of the struggling Republic, and half way 
down the hillside we can see the hotel where Washington and Jefferson and 
Madison were entertained, and where Lafayette was once more received 
when he revisited these shores after half a century had passed. 

Not far away, a tablet marks the house of Governor Stephen Hopkins, — 
a bright star in the brilliant galaxy of his time, who as an early constitution 
framer, has well been classed with Benjamin Franklin. 




HOMESTEAD OF KSKK HOPKINS, I'KO Vll)l,.\< K 
THE FIRST ADMIRAL OF THE AMERICAN NAVY 

25 



Scarcely beyond our vision, in the old colonial city down the bay, dwelt 
two other men whose names will always live in the annals of our Navy, 
and one of them is no less honored in Japan, which he opened to modern 
civilization. 

There is another who should be honored, lest it be said that States are 
ungrateful. The nation has not been forgetful of him, for there is a fine 
equestrian statue in Washington, and the memorial at Savannah bears 
testimony to the admiration of Georgia for our great General,'; Nathaniel 
Green. He who was called the "Saviour of the South," — who, in command 
of the Continental army was next to Washington, and whose military genius 
has had few equals since time began, — has never yet been honored by his 
own State. His splendid career should furnish inspiration for some great 
sculptor's work. It is a shame and almost a disgrace that Rhode Island has 
so long neglected to pay adequate tribute to his memory. 

Gilbert Stuart, also, the eadiest of great American portrait painters, 
deserves fitting recognition by the people of his state. He who so worthily 
portrayed other great men of his time, well deserves a similar appreciation. 

And let us not forget that in more modern days there was one who was 
the idol of Rhode Island, and whose memory should not suffer because 
financial reverses came to him in the midst of his public-spirited career. 
From the hill on which now stands our marble hall, with its superb white 
dome rising against the sky like a fairy palace, one might have heard, in the 
days of '61, the drums of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment as it started for 
Washington to be first in the field, most prompt of all the nation's defenders, 
at the President's call to arms. And Governor William Sprague was at its 
head. 

But the victories of Rhode Island have been those of peace more notably 
than those of war. 

The guiding principles 
of Rhode Island have 
become the principles of 
our nation and our civili- 
zation is fast becoming 
the inspiration and 
power of the world. 

Is not this honor 
enough for so small a 
state? 




FIRST COTTON MILL EVF.R ESTABLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES 



26 




DISTRICT KROM COURT HOI 



A CITY BUILT ON SEVEN HILLS 



Reckoned by similar methods of enumeration, the official population of the city of London is only 
about one-fifth as great as that of Providence. Moreover, that of London is constantly diminishing. 
Providence, because its corporate limits are not quite as restricted, has not yet begun a retrograde 
movement, yet like London it finds a constantly larger proportion of its real population living beyond its 
legal boundaries, and thus, like London, she is a city u^ithin a greater city. The metropolitan district, 
which includes the immediate environs, is the real Providence. In only one or two other American 
cities is a statement of its population so misleading as to its size and real importance. It may sound 
paradoxical to say that the growth of Providence is largely outside of Providence, but this is literally 
true for while the growth of Providence during the last ten years has amounted ( Census report 1910) 
to 27.8 per cent, the cities and towns immediately contiguous to Providence enjoyed a growth of 
about 39 per cent and the metropolitan district now contains about three-quarters of the whole popu- 
lation of the State. 

In no other American State is there found anything like so large a proportion of the entire popu- 
lation, surrounding a single centre and constituting a single continuously built community. 

Since it is true that a prophet has little honor in his own family, the 
real position of a city may be similarly unrealized by its own citizens. Its 
praises may go unsung, its beauties be left unheralded, its wealth and pros- 
perity only vaguely suspected, and its most precious treasures hidden. 

Familiarity makes all seem of litde account and it is only when the great- 
ness of what it possesses is set before them by visitors from afar, that citizens 
and neighbors begin to take notice. 

Such, at any rate, is the position that Providence like some other Eastern 
cities seems to hold today, and half the great things for which she is noted at 

27 



a distance, are practically unknown within her city limits. That, compared 
with her population, she is the' 'richest Vity in the Union, is commonly 
believed, but that she has several art galleries and museums that m the 
richness of their exhibits are second to none in the world, and a library that 




has a widespread fame throughout Europe and America, is not so generally 
known; nor is it realized that one of her private citizens has housed under his 
roof the finest Shakespearian Library in existence, and that others of her 
townsmen possess almost unrivalled collections of the works of the world's 



;^8 




lM) canal 



greatest painters. Nor is it adequately perceived that the city herself, to a 
greater extent perhaps than any other one town, has given character and 
impress to the annals of American history. 

But all these things and many others that are true in regard to Providence 
furnish the reasons why she should be distinguished among cities, without 
regard to her size, and her place on the map. 

This very place on the map, however, gives her advantages over many 
other cities which are of incalculable benefit. Sheltered as she is by her 
northern hills from the severe storms of the New England winter, and with 
the heat of the summer sun tempered by the prevailing breezes from her 
broad bay, she enjoys a climate the year round that is more even and less 
susceptible to violent changes than that of any other large city in New 
England. It is mild in winter and invigorating and healthful in summer 
and for manufacturing purposes almost without a rival. The surrounding 
country is rich in natural beauties; in fertile valleys, in rolling hills and 
winding rivers; and in the broad reaches and picturesque inlets of Narra- 
gansett Bay. 

Like old London, and Boston of our own country, both of which have a 
great proportion of their people living beyond their corporate limits, Provi- 
dence is the centre of a metropolitan group of populous places. These 

29 



add greatly to 
her quoted 
population, 
and make her 
about the tenth 
largest among 
American 
communities. 
This is the ex- 
planation of 
her appearance, 
which is very proper- 
ly, that of a city of a 
half million rather 
than a quarter million of 
people. 

If, however, we go 
beyond this "Greater Provi- 
dence" and draw a circle on 
a radius of say, eighty miles 
— which marks the limits of 
a day's convenient excursion 
to the waters of Narragansett 
Bay or to anything of special 
interest which Providence may 
have to offer, — we find that it 
contains more people than can 
be found in any similar circle 
anywhere in the Western Hemisphere except those of New York and 
Philadelphia. 

In Its offerings as an artistic and educational centre. Providence is hardly 
excelled by any other city in America. It is particularly rich in oppor- 
tunities for scientific or historical study, and its special schools, including its 
great academy of arts, and the wealth of its colonial architecture combine 
to produce an atmosphere conducive to the enjoyment of the student, the 
literary worker and the art lover. 

Of the famous galleries, museums and libraries, with which the city is 
enriched there are at least half a score, all splendid of their kind, and all 
conducted on broad and generous principles. At the head of the list is the 




HKAD OF NAVIGATION 



Rhode Island School of Design, and few institutions in the country can 
compare with it either as a museum or as a school of applied art. Its notable 
success furnishes abundant tribute to the wisdom of its founders and bene- 
factors and Its teaching of the practical relation of beauty and utility, makes 
It a commanding factor in the artistic and industrial development of the Slate. 
It furnishes instruction to artisans in drawing, painting, modeling and 
designing, that they may successfully apply the principles of art to the 
requirements of trade and manufactures ; it gives systematic training of 
students in the practice of art, that they may understand its principles, give 
instruction to others or become artists, and it worthily promotes the general 
advancement of art education by the exhibition of works of art and art 
studies and by lectures on art. But it is for the general utility of its courses 
that the School of Design is most noted, for in almost no other institution of 
a similar character can the practical results of such courses be so practically 
applied to the life of the community. Its Museum, which is visited each 
year by thousands of pilgrims from other cities, consists of eight galleries. 
Three of them contain oil and water color paintings and engravings; two con- 
tain casts of the masterpieces of classic and Renaissance sculpture; one 
has a fine collection of autotypes illustrating the history of painting; one is 
devoted to collections of Japanese pottery, metal work, lacquer, and textiles; 
one contains a representative collection of peasant pottery, from many 



New Federal 
Building, 
Providence 




31 



countries; while the Colonial House which forms the continuation of these 
galleries contains the fine Pendleton Collection. From the annual exhibi- 
tions by American artists, a number of paintings have been purchased 
and added to the permanent collection in the Museum. 

In the picture gallery can be seen paintmgs by Renaissance Italian and 
Dutch masters; the work of the "Ten American Painters," paintings by 
Bouguereau, Shannon, Alexander and Chase, and many landscapes by the 
Barbizon School, while the sculpture gallery has been cleverly arranged 
to illustrate the growth and decline of Classic art. The library with its 
rare and unusual volumes, is a valuable possession for the city. 

The Pendleton House, which is a part of the School, is a veritable 
treasurehouse, interesting as to the building itself and unrivalled in its way 
in the wealth of its contents, which are unusual, unique, and complete. 
No other house in the world, probably, contains such a wonderful collection 
of antique mahogany furniture, rugs, mirrors, porcelains, china and silver. 
The collection represents the life work of the late Charles Leonard Pendleton, 
who was known on both sides of the Atlantic as a connoisseur in things 
antique, and by whom it was presented to the Rhode Island School of Design, 
with the stipulation that a typical Colonial house be erected to hold his 
treasures. Although it is in reality a modern fireproof museum, the place 
is unique, in that house and furniture are in perfect harmony, giving the 
impression of a private mansion of a gentleman of taste and wealth who 




>ilH]Y^ 



V rrr 




I 't 



UVll 



Providence 
Public 
Library 



3^> 



must have 
lived in the 
eighteenth 
century, and 
furnished his 
house with 
the best pro- 
ductions of 
that period. 

In the Ann- 
mary Brown 
Memorial, 
Providenc e 
has a most 
unusual mu- 
seum that can- 
not be dupli- 
cated in this country. 
It contains a wonderful col- 
lection of family relics and 
costumes, first editions of 
volumes, many of them out 
of print, rare old engravings, 
works of old masters and 
paintings by modern artists. 
In its examples of eady print- 
ing this collection rivals the 
one contained in the celebrated 
Plantin Museum of Antwerp. 
Some of these books date as far 
back as the 13th century and are 
curious examples of a period long 
before the art of printing was perfected, 
the " Regulae Cancellarie," printed in 
Pauperum," or " Bible of the Poor," of 
in the collection, the first print of Gutenberg, the "Cologne Chronicles," 
printed in 1 490, and specimens of the works of the first printing known to 
Venice; but possibly the gem of this collection of rare books is one called 
"Lactantius," the work of Sweynheym and Pannarty, the most celebrated 

33 




■;H HARnOR FKOM 



Among its 
Rome in 
which there 



Famous treasures is 

1484, the "Biblia 

three or four 




ISLAM) STATE HOUSE 



printers in Italy. The collection goes back to the so-called "block book," 
printed by means of engraving on wood, before Gutenberg invented mova- 
ble type in 1440. 

Of the collection of paintings one's interest may be easily divided between 
those of the old masters and the modern works of art. The galleries devoted 
to displays of pictures are dignified apartments of noble proportions. Of 
the old masters there are examples, by Rembrandt, Hans Holbein, Van- 
Dyke, Canaletto, Angelica Kauffman, Guido Reni, Teniers, Quentin 
Matsys, Jordaens and many others. In the modern gallery nearly every 
example is worthy of mention. The Annmary Memorial Museum is a 
beautiful memorial and a noble and lasting one. 

As a collection relating to the history of the American continent, the John 
Carter Brown Library, which occupies a beautiful building on the Middle 
Campus of Brown University, stands without a peer. Like the Annmary 
Museum It contains specimens of early printing, but its world wide fame is 
due to the fact that it is the one library in the world that must be consulted 
by every first-hand investigator into the discovery, exploration, settlement 
and colonial history of all parts of the two Americas, and with its liberal 
endowment it may be expected to maintain the supremacy it has won. It 
is compiled from every language and is something at which posterity may 
marvel. 

Of other museums, two of the most fascinating are the R. I. Historical 
Society with its gallery full of rare manuscripts and relics, and the Atheneum 
which during its long existence has acquired a notable library and yet more 



notable atmosphere of literary and artistic charm. The Natural History 
Museum at Roger Williams Park, which is the only public municipal 
museum m New England, is popular and useful as well, and there are 
one or two smaller museums that are good of their kind. 

Of course. Providence is proud of its fine old University on College Hill. 
Formerly known as Rhode Island College when it was established in I 764, 
its name was subsequently changed to Brown University, in honor of its 
early benefactor. Its beautiful campus, "Under the Elms," has given 
inspiration to many men who have made their mark in American history ; 
but Pembroke, the department for gids, is beginning to demand consideration 
also. Most interesting of the buildings, admired for its stately dignity and 
the traditions of 140 college years, is University Hall, famous as the head- 
quarters of our French Allies during the Revolutionary War, and as the 
building wherein George Washington received his "LL.D." Splendid 
library facilities are connected with the University. In addition to various 
"Department libraries" the Brown University Library contains 140,000 
volumes, including the Harris Collection of American poetry, the largest of 
its kind in the world, and the Wheaton collection of Rhode Island history. 
Its contents, which also include many works of art, have long overtaxed the 
capacity of the attractive, Venetian Gothic building on Waterman Street and 
will shortly be removed to a white marble home in the John Hay Memorial 
Library. 

As has recently been said by a French writer, it is probably due to Brown 
University, more than to 
any other factor, that 
Providence with its great 
industries and the su- 
premacy of manufactur- 
ing life as the mainspring 
of its remarkable pros- 
perity, has not lost its 
ideals of culture and tra- 
dition and become merely 
a great over-grown 
factory village. 

The Providence Pub- 
lic Library is famous for 
methods that' have been 
copied extensively in 

3j 









Europe as well 
as in America. 
It is celebrated 
for its means of 
administration, 
for Its reference 
and children 
departments, and 
for special col- 
lections, includ- 
ing the Harris 
Library on 
Slavery and the 



Civil War, the Williams collection of Folk-lore, the Standard Library of Best 
Literature and the Rhode Island Medical Society's Library of several 
thousand volumes. 

Of the private collections in Providence one at least has no equal in the 
w^orld. It is the Shakespearian collection belonging to Marsden J. Perry. 
So long as it remains complete, it is not likely that any other collection 
can surpass it, for many of its most valuable works are without duplicates. 

Through recent exhibitions it has become known that Mr. Richard 
Canfleld owns the most important collection of the works of Whistler to be 
found in this country. It is very likely true that he also possesses the largest 
gallery of modern French painting in America, although there are several 
other citizens of Providence whose collections would be in the "World's 
Famous" class if they 
were generally known. 

Two of Gilbert 
Stuart's beautiful and 
famous paintings of 
Washington are to be 
found in Providence, 
one in the house of a 
private collector and one 
in the reception room of 
the State House. 

The diversity of the 
clubs in and around 
Providence gives a vivid 




I'KOVIDENCK 




idea of the character of 
Its people and of their 
occupations and enjoy- 
ments. Besides the usual 
assortment of business 
clubs and social clubs 
belonging to a large city, 
there is an extraordinary 
number of clubs of very 
varied interests and in- 
dividuality. 

Semi-exclusive clubs, 
like the Hope Club, are 
found in most large cities, 
though they may not 

en be able to secure 
such beautiful surroundings in such a convenient location. University Clubs 
are becoming numerous, though none of these west of the Alleghanies may 
hope to inhabit a fine old Colonial mansion. More popular organizations 
of business men, with down-town cafes and spacious apartments, like those 
of the flourishing West Side Club, exist in most of the cities which appear 
in large type upon the North American map. It is, however, in the 
unusual number of clubs that are " different," and of striking indi- 
viduality that Providence appears peculiar. Its varied surroundings, of 




MIDDLE CAMPUS BKOWN 1 

UNIVERSITY HALL, ERECTED 1770 MA^ 

37 



■:HSITV 

; HAI.L IX CENTER 




course, give opportunity ror 
unusually beautiful country 
clubs, some of them with 
historic settings, like the 
Agawam and Wanna- 
moisett. Its winding, gendy 
flowing rivers close to the 
population center, give in- 
spiration for a bewildering 
number of canoe clubs, 
mosdy with unpronounce- 
able names; the broader 
reaches of the Seekonk 
afford opportunity for row- 
ing clubs, like the Narra- 
gansett and the Pawtucket 
Boat Club ; the wealth of attractions of Narragansett Bay which can be 
cruised for a week without exhausting its delights, gives possibility to such 
fine establishments as the Rhode Island Yacht Club, the Edgewood Club 
and several others possess. If Providence, especially since the "Good Roads" 
movement has made headway, has been looked upon as a great automobile 
rendezvous, it has for a very much longer period, been famous for the 
enjoyment of its nearby waterways. The Rhode Islander's loyalty to his 
native clambake brought about the beginnings of the splendid Squantum 
and Pomham Club establishments on the East bay shore, and several 
others upon the west 

side, while the cosmo- \ 

politan character of the 
population is attested by 
the almost endless list of 
societies with foreign 
sounding names. Surely 
the Providence Art Club 
is a notable factor in the 
life of the town, and its 
quaint old home, which 
by the way, was built 
in 1 767 by Edward 
Percival, is well known 
to visitors from many 

38 




distant lands as a place of fascination rarely equalled and never 
duplicated. For cricket and polo, and tennis and golf, there are abundant 
opportunities, and although Providence is not considered an especially 
musical city, it supports a considerable number of musical organizations. 
The list of "organizations, societies, etc.," given in the Providence Directory 
is an appalling one and the impression that it is unusually long and varied 
is entirely confirmed by a study of the directories of other cities. The "Blue 
Book" gives a list of ninety more or less "fashionable" ones, but this is only 
a small proportion of them all. Certain it is, that whatever one's tastes or 
accomplishments, nationality or condition in life, he need not lack for 
congenial environment. 

Great popular resorts and amusement parks also abound. The shores 
of the bay and the picturesque nooks along the rivers have furnished the 
setting for such places as Vanity Fair and Rocky Point, Rhodes on the 
Pawtuxet and many others that cater to great throngs. Some of these 
resorts at times take care of more than 50,000 visitors on a single day, and 
w^hen one considers the number of attractions that are always open, particu- 
lady in summer, it would seem as if all Rhode Islanders, as well as their 
neighbors from over the Massachusetts border, must spend all their days 
and nights in pursuit of pleasure. But the Rhode Islanders are, in reality, 
industrious and somewhat frugal, and they have more individual savings 
bank deposits than any equal number of people in any other state. It has 
been said by somebody, that the average man is only two walls away 
from starvation, but if this is the case, the people of Providence at any rate 
are not "average men," for the bank deposits average $677.88 apiece all 
round. 

There is enough money in the Providence banks to rebuild the city in a 
much more costly manner, if it were swept off the earth by a conflagration 
tomorrow. In a short time, however, there may be enough to build several 
such cities, for the deposits are increasing in much greater ratio than the realty 
valuation. The national and state banks and trust companies, for example, 
more than trebled their deposits in the ten years ending with 1908. With 
but a brief setback, caused by the national business depression of 1907, 
their prosperity has increased by leaps and bounds. The city is located 
in the most prosperous district in the United States, and it has been estimated 
that one-twentieth of all the wealth in the country is within fifty miles of 
Providence. 

The present condition of the city is pretty well indicated by the fact that 
more buildings were begun during the first six months of 1910 than in any 
previous six months in its history; the bank clearings thus far in 1910 are 

:5i) 



the largest ever known, and the business of the Providence Post Office at 
the end of 1909 showed a greater percentage of increase than that of any 
other first class post office in the United States. 

The average inhabitant of Providence, unlike the dweller in almost any 
other American city, doesn't care a picayune about how big it is or how 
small it is, and he has only the vaguest idea of local statistics of any kind. 

Instead of fighting madly to bring in every last name to the census man 
and then to pad the returns with a few hundred imaginary ones, he pays no 
attention whatever until the official result is announced, and then looks at it 
with a mild credulity and surprise that it should be so large. To be sure, 
except so far as we must be taught to make provision for the greater needs 
of the future population, there is no great fascination in population tables. 
Nor is there any special virtue in mere bigness. Very big cities are not 
always more prosperous than very small ones, and the people who live in 
them are not necessarily happier than they would be in a town of half the 
inhabitants. 

And so the new civic movement of Providence rather takes the form of an 
inquiry into local conditions and the gathering of information for instructing 
its natives than of an attempt to impress the outsider. 

"The city must know itself first, " its promoters say ; "it must know itself 
exacdy as it is, — what its deficiencies are, as well as its advantages, as 
compared with other places." Instead of forming a "500,000 club" and 
annexing all the suburbs at one fell swoop, as would be justified in this 
particular case, they calmly announce, "We don't care so much about how 
many people there are as we do to know what sort of people they are. If 
the city can be developed so that it will be the best possible sort of place to 
live in and to work in, it will prosper all right, and grow big full fast 
enough." The Board of Trade sets out to improve urban conditions, by 
which efficient and useful citizens may be created. "We don't want any 
more industries than we've got, " said a member of the publicity committee 
recently, "unless the new ones are of at least as high a grade as the average 
that we have already. Otherwise they will be a burden rather than a 
benefit. And we don't want to lure anybody to come here, unless he 
can improve his condition by coming." Rather a revolutionary idea for 
a "Publicity Department" to espouse perhaps, but it is based on economics 
and humanity. 

Yet all the same the census shows that the factories of greater Providence 
have been increasing at the rate of about one a week for the last few years. 
Though no especial effort has ever been made to attract new manufacturing 
establishments. Providence has become one of the greatest industrial centres 

40 



of the United States, noted for the variety of its products and the skilled 
workmanship of its artisans. 

Among its great manufactories, the "Big Five," as they are called, each 
ranks as the foremost and largest of its kind in the world; and it is believed 
that such a statement may also be true of half a dozen additional establish- 
ments. 

Pre-eminent among its varied industries is the manufacture of jewelry 
with Its allied interests, such as chasing, enamelling, die sinking, etc.; and 
its products, which amounted in 1 906 to $3 1 ,000,000, are distributed 
among the nations of the earth. Undoubtedly, with its suburbs. Providence 
is the greatest jewelry manufacturing centre of the world. 

Providence contains the largest silverware establishment and the largest 
mechanical tool manufactory in the world, and the product of its workers in 
the white metal is greater than that of any State in the country outside of 
Rhode Island. The Providence District is by far the greatest textile centre 
of the country. It has no near competitor in the world in the manufacture 
of screws and of files; and it is the second largest producer of butterine prod- 
ucts. It is a large producer also of malt liquors, foundry and machine shop 
products and rubber goods and leads in the dyeing and finishing of textiles. 
Being surrounded by the greatest cotton and woollen manufacturing district 
in America, it has become one of the greatest cotton and wool markets, as 
well as the national headquarters for the supplying of textile mill machinery, 
metal mill supplies, and for the planning and insuring of mills. It has been 
said that nearly every manufactured product in textiles, iron, gold, silver 
and other metals is made in Providence, in either a large or small way. 
The very populous area all around gives industrial enterprises a great 
"Home Market," in which to dispose of their wares, and a large and varied 
industrial army from which to obtain skilled workmen. 

It has been remarked that the Metropolitan District, if it were all one city 
in name as it is in appearance, would rank in population tenth or eleventh 
among the great cities of the country; but in manufactures in 1900, (last 
United States census), it was sixth among industrial centres for capital 
invested and wage-earners employed, and fifth in the annual amount of 
wages paid. $1 43,000,000 of products were being annually produced in 
factories which had a capital of $140,787,000, and paid $31,687,933 to 
their 75,000 employees. The industries of the city proper were represented 
by a litde over two-thirds of the above figure. 

But it does not take long in Rhode Island for any kind of statistics to 
become hopelessly obsolete, for since 1 900, according to the census report, 
its manufactures have increased more rapidly than those of any other state ; 

41 



indeed, some of them have more than doubled. For instance, the Factory 
Inspector's report for January 1 , 1 908, shows that the number of employees 
in certain "Leadmg Industries, " advanced from 60,858 m 1897 to 137,000 
in 1907, showing a gain of more than 125 per cent, in ten years. This 
extraordinary record is thoroughly verified by the result of the special 
industrial census, taken under the authority of the Rhode Island Bureau of 
Industrial Statistics, and relating to sixteen leading industries, for the year 
1906. It was found that in but two years' time the invested capital had 
grown more than twelve per cent., and the value of products a bit less than 
thirty-two per cent. The number of wage earners had increased eighteen 
and one-half per cent., while the total wages earned had jumped up by 
almost thirty per cent. From all of which, the reader will perceive that 
Rhode Island's industries are not exactly decadent. 

As evidence of the municipal credit, it may be noted that but four other 
cities in America enjoy so low an interest rate. The outstanding bonds of 
the city represent permanent investments only. The expenses are much 
less than the receipts. The surplus goes into the sinking fund or pays for 
various inprovements. 

A good illustration is offered by the waterworks, in which it appears that 
additions to the plant, amounting to nearly one and one-half million dollars, 
have been made within the last few years, without using a dollar from the 
city treasury. They have all been paid for out of the profits of the depart- 
ment and charged against "Cost of Management," thus with characteristic 
conservatism, disguising so far as the city reports are concerned the extreme 
prosperity of the public finances. 

On January 1, 1909, the net debt was $13,530,203.14 averaging $62.93 
per capita, estimating the population at only 215,000. This statement, 
however, is somewhat misleading, since $4,416,000 of this net debt repre- 
sents outstanding bonds on the waterworks, which must be considered as a 
dividend paying investment rather than a burden. The local receipts from 
public service corporations, on account of the franchises, are exceeded in 
but six other cities, and these combined with the net profit from water and 
other municipal services, not only more than equal the interest on the entire 
city debt, together with cost of sinking fund for its complete retirement, but 
earn a very handsome surplus besides. In buildings and lands, in sewers 
and waterworks, in interest-bearing trust funds and personal property of 
various kinds, the public assets amount to about four times the public 
liabilities. 

According to the census returns recently announced, the city of Providence 
contained, in April, 1910, 224,326 people, and there were about two and 

42 



one half per cent, more who dodged the census man as a preliminary to 
dodging their poll taxes, or who for some other reason omitted to stand up 
and be counted. As the rate of increase is about 600 a month, a fair es- 
timate for September 1, 1910, is 230,000. The local habit, however, 
IS to build detached houses with air spaces all around, and as a consequence, 
the city has been bubbling over its boundaries faster and faster through 
recent decades. The real Providence, therefore, is the Metropolitan Dis- 
trict of Providence Plantations, which has the appearance of a single city, 
and is unbrokenly built up for about twelve miles from north to south, and 
about five miles from east to west. This Metropolitan district now has 
something over four hundred thousand people, and grows at a greater 
ratio than the central city. The city proper increased about 28 per cent, 
between 1900 and 1910, which is very creditable, considering its handi- 
cap ; but the immediate environs, which furnish more room for home- 
builders, grew about 39 per cent., which is very unusual except in a "boom 
town." But the growth of the Providence District is not spasmodic, and 
its variation from one decade to another is very slight. It is one of the 
most rapidly growing communities of the East. 

But after all, the real question that concerns us most when we are mea- 
suring one city against another or against the average city, is this — Is it a 
place wherein life is worth living? If it is, business enterprises are pretty 
sure to be prosperous, for the help problem, which is the most important 
of all, takes care of itself so much more easily. If the manufacturer can 
bring his business to the place where the labor market is well supplied and 
the workers happily situated, he enjoys an advantage that in most cases 
counts for more than cheaper raw material or exemption from taxation. 
Especially is this so with those high-grade industries where the skill of 
the worker and the extent of the pay roll plays the most important part In 
the production. It is in many such industries that Providence excels all 
other cities in the country ; and apparently Providence provides its people 
with every opportunity to be good citizens by furnishing phenomenal 
educational advantages and fortunate environment. 



43 







A CITY OF REAL HOMES 



Providence is a city of real homes. It is doubtful if there is any other 
one of the large cities where so large a proportion of the population are 
so well-housed, well-fed, well educated and well provided with the best 
pleasures of existence. 

In a big New England city, good schools are expected ; and many de- 
partments that have been instituted here have been widely copied through- 
out the country. The churches represent almost every possible denom- 
ination, and the hospitals and the beneficial and charitable institutions 
cover every conceivable field of usefulness. 

The water system, the sewer system, and the street lighting system are 
models of their kind. The public water system has the benefit of one of 
the finest filtration plants in existence, and the system of sewerage disposal 
is by far the most extensive in America. Railroad grade crossings, common 
enough in other cities, have here practically ceased to exist. One tax bill 
covers all the cost of city, county and state taxes. There are no special 
assessments for parks or schools or highway maintenance as in western 
cities. 

44 



The stores are varied in character and many of them magnificent in size. 
The shopping facilities, owing to the fact that Providence is the trading 
centre of more than a milhon people, comprising not only the whole popu- 
lation of Rhode Island but parts of two adjoining states, are quite unequalled 
in any other city of its class. 

The great majority of the people of Providence live in detached houses 
that contain two families each, one family living on the ground floor and 
the other up-stairs, with entrances generally separate, so that each flat is 
independent. The house occupies a space near the centre of a lot con- 
taining either 4,000 or 5,000 square feet, and it thus has light and air on 
all four sides. Even in the poorer districts, the two family house is much 
more common than any other sort, though "three-deckers" are rapidly 
gaining in numbers. One family cottages are also very numerous. 

Happily for the dwellers m Providence, long rows of residence 
blocks are almost unknown, and high, crowded tenement buildings 
are seldom seen. Individualism shows itself in the manner of building 
as in almost everything else in Providence; and in the matter of sub- 
stantial and palatial dwellings, the east side and Elmwood district 
present many beautiful types. The principal streets, developed with al- 
most no original design, radiate in the general way that the first country 
roads, or the preceding Indian trails led out into the surrounding country 
from the town; and although Providence is lacking in "show" streets of 
great magnificence, it is also lacking in unkempt streets of squalid degra- 
dation. From some fortunate circumstance, the areas and numbers of 
districts that may be called poverty stricken or downright shabby have 
astonishingly diminished during the last score of years, and such plague 
spots as we find clustered behind the railroad tracks or down by the waters 
edge in most North American cities, are now almost non-existent in the 
Providence district. 

Some of the older residential districts, moreover, supply a most unusual 
sort of artistic delight. It may be safely said that Providence possesses 
more fine and varied examples of interesting and domestic architecture than 
any other city in the United States. Nowhere have there survived so many 
splendid estates of the colonial style or so many humbler but worthy samples 
of the early type, and much of the newer building follows these same models. 
To the cultivated seeker for an interesting home this is a source of much joy, 
and when he looks for a reason for the survival of so much that is fittest 
among dwelling places, he finds it in the contour of the East side hills, that 
were first built upon by the prosperous citizens of a century ago. The 
steepness of the slops has brought about the salvation of the residence 



district and diverted business along the valleys and out over the more 
level West side. 

In this environment of comfortable homes and notable absence of extreme 
poverty throughout any considerable area, we find a reason for the infre- 
quency of labor troubles. There is not as wide a gulf between the condition 
of the rich and the poor as one observes in most cities, and evidences of 
wretchedness and want are not visible or even discoverable in the ordinary 
degree. 

Providence is an orderly city, and Providence in its administration is 
an unusually honest and businesslike city. It possesses the picturesqueness 
that comes from long establishment. It furnishes the comfort that comes 
with much prosperity, and the stimulus of an extremely busy and fast 
growing twentieth century city. What more can anyone ask for in a town? 
Well, plenty of things remain to be done to make Providence still better 
"worth living in and working for," but on the whole, — say those who are 
most familiar with the other cities throughout the nation, — Rhode Island's 
capital stands in the very topmost class as a place in which to live happily 
and to labor successfully. 

Providence itself, accustomed as it is to the wealth of its own attractions, 
but vaguely comprehends the varied delights it has to offer to its visitors, 
but the tourist who tarries seldom fails to be impressed by them. If one 
considers the list of cities throughout the United States, and the "objects 
of interest" that furnish the basis of local pride and exploitation, it is difficult 
to think of one so amply and variously provided. You cannot "see 
Providence" in a day or even in a week at any time of year. Whatever 
phase of human life or activity, or whatever contemplation of the gifts of 
nature may interest the visitor, there are few places in the world where he 
is likely to find more of his tastes well gratified. 

Its parks, its public institutions, its surrounding hills and shores ; its com- 
paratively smokeless skies ; its varied architecture and charming suburbs ; 
its historic associations, as well as its vast and varied industries, and its 
picturesque cosmopolitan character, make Providence the "City of Fascin- 
ation." 



46 



COMMERCE OF NARRAGANSETT 
PRESENT AND FUTURE 

When one considers that the Clyde at Glasgow was once a tiny stream that might be crossed on 
stepping stones, and thinks of the work that has been necessary on the Elbe and the Weser, to bring 
ships to Hamburg and to Bremen, it doesn't look like a very mighty task to make the city at the head of 
the noble Narragansett Waterway one of the most useful ports in the world. The situation on the map is 
favorable ; the natural equipment is unusual ; other available ports are becoming overcrowded and the 
ocean carrying trade is rapidly calling for new facilities. Opportunity is knocking at the Southern 
Gateway of New England. 

Compared with the millions that have been spent in every one of the 
great ports of the world, the amount now contemplated for harbor improve- 
ments in Providence is insignificant, but as the beginning of a new policy, 
It is very suggestive. Compared with the natural advantages that a 
great many of the other ports had to start with, the opportunities of Provi- 
dence are striking. Here is an absolutely land-locked bay, reaching nearer 
to the centre of New England than does any other tidewater. Its entrances 
are ideal. Its area is over three hundred square miles, and more than half 
of this is deep enough for the biggest ships in the world. And already 
the biggest ships may come within ten miles of the Rhode Island State 
House, which is considerably nearer than they can get to London at low 
tide; while ships of four or five thousand tons may come to the upper harbor 
of the city. Undoubtedly Narragansett Bay provides the safest harbor 
entrance on the North Atlantic Coast. Providence lies at its head, many 
miles beyond the range of projectiles from a hostile fleet. 

When the dredging now in progress by the National Government is 
finished, its inner harbor will have a uniform depth of twenty-five feet, 
over an anchorage area of one hundred and seventy-one acres. Further 
plans by the government contemplate straightening and widening of the 
main channel at a cost of about $1,000,000 ; and the city of Providence 
proposes to expend $450,000 and to donate certain land that obstructs a 
more direct approach to the wharves. The state of Rhode Island has 
voted half a million dollars for public docks. The New York, New Haven 
and Hartford Railroad, which has invested many millions of dollars in 
Providence during the last few years, and has just built a new bridge and 
a tunnel, at a cost of about $2,000,000, is expecting to spend about 
$2,000,000 more on improved dock facilities near India Point. Just how 
elaborate the Grand Trunk railroad terminal will be is at present un- 
announced, but it will undoubtedly include docks for ocean steamers as a 
part of its equipment. 

47 



It is evident that the one great disadvantage from which the city and 
state have suffered, as a distributing point for Central and Northern Nev^ Eng- 
land, and for a populous part of Canada, is the lack of proper Western and 
Northern connections. That lack, happily, will be overcome by the 
extension of the Grand Trunk Railway system to Providence as its south- 
eastern terminus, for by this greatest of all transcontinental railroads there 
will be provided direct connection with the Connecticut Valley, Vermont 
and Montreal, with the Lake region, the great fields of the Canadian 
Northwest, and even with the Pacific Ocean. 

Rhode Island has awakened to the importance of waterway develop- 
ment and the government is beginning to appreciate the future of Narra- 
gansett Bay, although the realization has came tardily. The city and the 
state are doing their share for the improvement of the port of Providence, 
and expect a profitable return for their investment. 

Comparatively undeveloped as they are to-day, the bay and its adjacent 
waters carry annually more commerce than the whole Mississippi River 
system, with the exception of the Ohio branch. Yet the government, 
since its history began, has spent upon Rhode Island waters scarcely more 
than one per cent, of the appropriations made or authorized for the Missis- 
sippi Valley. Rhode Island considers itself fortunate when it secures out 
of the rivers and harbors bill $974,500; while the state of Washington, 
whose tonnage is no greater than her own, is allotted $3,836,000. 

Providence is thoroughly interested in the proposed inland waterways, 
but she by no means believes that the Coast Canal will satisfy her ambitions. 
She is determined to have her share one of these days in the ocean carrying 
trade. She looks upon the inland waterways as valuable feeders for that 
business, and especially useful in bringing to her great factories and to those 
others clustered about her, or scattered through New England, the coal and 
the raw materials she wants from southern ports. By these canals and by 
the new Erie canal, Rhode Island and all New England will be connected 
with the cotton fields of the south, the coal fields of Pennsylvania, and the 
iron mines of Lake Superior; and barges may proceed without unloading 
to Narragansett Bay. There will thus be the combination that has made 
Hamburg and the other German cities great and prosperous; and Provi- 
dence has recently remembered that the Elbe at Hamburg, which has de- 
veloped into the the second commercial city of Germany — has less depth of 
water at its celebrated docks than Providence already has in her inner 
harbor. 

She remembers also, that her ships once sailed on every sea before her 
manufacturers grew so prosperous that she turned aside from the ocean to 



48 



attend her looms and spinning frames, and she looks ahead with abundant 
justification to a revival of her maritime trade, since she is the natural 
distributing pomt for New England of all things that come in ships. 

The port already offers abundant opportunities for coastwise and foreign 
commercial and passenger service. There is ample space along the water 
front for warehouses and for manufacturing plants of endless variety, with 
unrivaled facilities for receiving raw material and dispatching the finished 
product of manufacture, at the least possible expenditure in handling. 

Though the present business is not a tithe of what ought to be expected, 
its annual amount is by no means inconsiderable. About seventy per cent, 
of the tonnage is coal ; thirteen per cent, general merchandise in steamers ; 
four per cent, lumber and three per cent. oil. The oyster business is very 
large, 2676 boats having been counted by the harbor master in 1909. Of 
other vessels there were 2342 steamers, 1355 barges, 797 tugs, 322 
schooners and 5 barks. The number of passengers carried by steamers 
is about 2,400,000 per year. 

Considered as the "Southern Gateway of New England," it is worth 
recalling that but two other ports in the whole Western Hemisphere have so 
large or so wealthy a population, or such extensive industries, located 
within the radius of two or three hours travel distance. When the history 
of other harbor development works is studied, it does not seem unreasonable 
that a direct channel of thirty-five or forty feet should be demanded for 
the very short distance necessary to make Providence one of the greatest 
of modern commercial ports. 



49 




A BIT OF NARRAGANSETT SHORE 



THE PLAYGROUNDS OF THE PEOPLE 



The visitor arriving in Providence steps forth from the Union Station into a Civic Centre that at 
present has no counterpart in the United States. Washington, to be sure, is proceeding rapidly in the 
creation of a magnificent approach, and several western cities are looking forward to the day when they 
shall greet their incoming guests more worthily: but a combination of fortunate circumstances brought the 
Providence plaza into being some years before the modern movement had begun. Its existence is a 
memorial to that long contention that preceded the establishment of the present railroad approach, and to 
the resulting compromise between those who were striving for a much larger central park area, and 
others ivho believed in a commercial use for every inch of space. 

|F "Greater Providence" had not been so well 
provided v^^ith diversified natural attractions 
or river and hill and bay, and with great 
open grounds of semi-public institutions, the 
full development of its Metropolitan Park 
System would be an easier task. These 
places of recreation and enjoyment have been 
so long and so fully made use of, that it is 
difficult for the average citizen to perceive 
that their use is a fleeting privilege, and that 
the rapid growth of the population, which 
in itself increases the need, will certainly obliterate, or close to public use, 
most of the places that have ministered to the well-being of past generations . 
In order that such a sad calamity might not come to pass, the Metropolitan 
Park Movement was started. It proposes to connect eventually all the 
out-lying towns of Greater Providence into one complete and attractive 
whole ; and when finished, with its miles of smooth driveways, its beautiful 
wooded parks, traversed by winding streams and dotted with many lakes, 
it promises to make Providence notable for its wealth of recreation places, 
within easy access. To those who perceive that the loss of existing oppor- 

50 




tunities, and an almost overwhelming cost of artificial substitutes, must 
always be the penalty of delay, the movement appears to proceed rather 
haltmgly, although the acreage of public recreation grounds has doubled 
within the last two years. 

Providence started with a glorious legacy of river and hill and bay, and 
a climate stimulating to the best fruits of labor. At the head of a commanding 
waterway, in the midst of country well-suited to be the abiding place of an 
active and happy population, the reasons for its growth and prosperous 
condition are not difficult to discover ; but its present achievements are in many 
ways accidental, or the result of independent and spasmodic effort. This 
has been the case with the parks as with most other things. 

Thirty-three parks, containing an aggregate of 646 acres, are under the 
control of the city park commissioners. In addition there are about 479 
acres of reservoir sites or semi-public grounds, besides various amusement 
parks. Public institutions control 803 acres more which are open to 
the public most of the time, like the extensive grounds of the Rhode Island 
Hospital, Butler Hospital, the State Home and School and the new City 
Hospital. There are about three and one half miles of boulevards, includ- 
ing the new Pleasant Valley Parkway; and the Metropolitan Park 
System will eventually add about thirty-six miles of boulevards and many 
hundred acres of parkland, including lakes, hills, forests, river and bay shores. 

At present the Metropolitan Commission controls a litde over 750 acres. 

In 1892 the combined area of all the parks was about 155 acres. In 
1871 Betsy Williams had bequeathed to the city her ancestral farm, and 
middle aged citizens may remember now with some amusement the opposi- 
tion to the acceptance of a park "so far out in the wilderness." Hayward 
and Tockwotton Parks had been established in 1888, and the historic home 
of Hon. Thomas Davis had been added in 1891 . A deep ravine, with a 
litde brook emptying into the Seekonk River, and comprising two or three 
acres, was all there was of Blackstone Park. Since that time an extensive 
pond area with its islands and surrounding shores has been added to Roger 
Williams Park. The other parks have grown and several new ones have 
been created. 

Roger Williams Park, of course, is one of the most notable public pleasure 
grounds of New England. There are fine forests and rolling hills and many 
miles of drives. There is a splendid casino with a cafe, and a natural 
history museum that is popular and useful. 

In the extensive chain of lakes, there are nearly 140 acres of water surface, 
extending into so many bays and inlets that they make a shore line of seven 
or eight miles. 

51 



In the winter, throngs of skaters hasten to the park and it is not unusual 
to see 1 0,000 people upon the ice. But Roger Williams Park is at its best 
upon a moonlit summer night, when the hot city has poured out its throngs 
by trolley car and auto and bicycle, or by the humbler vehicle of "shanks 
mare. 

From the gaily lighted platform in the lake the music of the band floats 
over the waters. High among the trees is the terrace of the casino ; around 
the bandstand are flitting dozens of row boats and canoes, and on all the 




i\VTrXKT RIVKl! 1- 



surroundmg hillsides are happyj'parties hushed by the music to a decorous 
silence. Red and green lights from tiny launches dance upon the water, 
and over on the opposite boulevard are immense tangles of motor cars, with 
staring eyes. It is all very entrancing, and a celebrated writer, who 
knows almost everything there is to know about almost all the places 
there are, once wrote that he had not supposed there was anything quite so 
poetically exquisite this side of Venice. 

From the park on Neutaconkanut Hill, the prospect embraces the homes 
of nearly seven-ninths of the population of the state, besides those of the 



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Massachusetts city of Fall River, spread out in all its length upon a distant 
hill. Narragansett Bay is visible for more than twenty miles, and a rich 
panorama of urban activity and suburban growth, of wooded hills and 
glistening lakes, extends from the feet of the beholder. 

Quite different from either of the others is Blackstone Park. The See- 
konk River is a broad salt estuary that forms the easterly limit of the fashion- 
able "East Side." At its northern end the Blackstone River plunges over 
the falls near the Main Street Bridge in Pawtucket. Four miles farther 
down it contracts to a narrow channel, crossed by several street and railway 
bridges and bordered by ugly shops and coal pockets, and enters Providence 
Harbor. Along the side where the city would otherwise have crowded out 
the pleasant groves, the shores for about three miles have been preserved 
by the park and the cemeteries and public institutions beyond. The com- 
manding bluffs are richly wooded and intelligendy cultivated for most of 
the way, and the river road winding along the water's edge will sometime be 
extended to the bridges at Pawtucket. 

In the very centre of the city is Exchange Place and the Union Station, 
where up to a few years ago there extended a great salt water cove. 
When this cove was filled, the broad open spaces all around became 
immensely valuable, and many thrifty and "practical" inhabitants began 



counting up the millions of dollars that these lots would bring, if sold for the 
sort of buildings that usually — to the shame of our American cities, it must 
be said — surround great railroad stations. Instead, however, of letting 
them be covered with cheap restaurants and fish markets and garages, the 
city has set aside for itself a superb square and splendid garden, and a 
railroad entrance that is at present unsurpassed in America. Around this 
area, the most notable buildings are being placed. The City Hall, for 
many years the most creditable structure in the city, stands at one end, and 
facing It at the opposite end is the beautiful Post Office, which a noted 
Boston architect recendy described as "The finest government building 
outside of Washington." The City Hall Park, with the Banjotti Fountain 
in Its centre, extends along the whole length of the plaza in front of the 
station, to welcome the coming of more than thirty thousand daily travelers. 

To further quote the address of the enthusiast from Boston, "Providence 
has taken advantages of an opportunity to create a beautiful Civic Centre 
such as any city in the world might envy, and it has been the first of the 
large cities to achieve results along the lines to which so much modern 
thought is being given." 

In the rear of the station, three large tracts of weed-covered land had been 
left over after filling in the last remaining vestige of the old "Cove," which 




AT mi;ri> 

54 



once covered nearly all of the central section of the city. These lots, at 
present, are the most conspicuous objects that the traveller sees when he 
stops at the Providence station on the way from Boston to New York. 
When the Bostonian thinks of his own exquisite Public Garden, it makes 
him smile pityingly to hear that these unkempt lots have been officially 
named the Public Garden of Providence. But time will change all things, 
and as soon as the freight cars have been moved away from the door-yard 
of the capitol, the city and the state and the railroads may do great things 




in the way of transformation. To the left stands the splendid new Normal 
School, in a beautiful garden where once were ugly foundries and the old 
State Prison. On the opposite side of Francis Street the land has been 
swept clear of a motly collection of ramshackle rookeries, and the massive 
State House rears its classic portico and its magnificent marble dome against 
the sky. A happy harmonizing of dignified lines and exquisite detail, is 
this building of the State ; — one of the most noble buildings of America and 
an everlasting joy to all who look upon it. 

Above this plaza, upon the east, is the attractively varied sky line of 
College Hill, its richness of summer foliage obscuring all but the highest 
roofs and the graceful spires of the "aristocratic section," and crowned by 
the Christian Science Dome and the interesting buildings of the old Univer- 



sity. Toward the west the channel of the Woonasquatucket River, with 
broad streets on either side, gives opportunity for a boulevard to Davis Park, 
and onward by means of the new Pleasant Valley Parkway to the rather 
undeveloped northwest corner of the city. 

In the conception of the Metropolitan Park System, it was realized that 
a serious obstacle would be encountered in the artificial division of "Greater 




Providence" into neady a dozen independent cities and towns, but although 
the conditions were unusual the promoters of the enterprise found a precedent 
in Massachusetts, in accordance with which the "Metropolitan Park District" 
in Rhode Island was constituted. This provides an official name for a 
community that should be in fact, as it is in appearance, a single city, and 
the means by which, so far as the park system is concerned, it may indeed, 
act as a single city. 

.5() 



Of course, this park, 
district as such, would 
have no revenue of 
its own and no bor- 
rowing power, but it 
was proposed, as in 




m 



Massachusetts, that the 
state as a whole 
should provide the 
means, and reimburse- 
ment should be made 
in proper proportion 
by the individual 
cities and towns within 
the district. 

Upon the petition " ' '"'^'^ ""'" '' ='-'^— ^ ™ 

of the Public Park Association, the Legislature in 1 905 appointed a Metro- 
politan Park Commission to make a preliminary report, and the commission 
was so constituted as to represent the extent of the proposed park district as 
well as its varied interests, educational, artistic and commercial. The work 
was a labor of love on the part of all those who promoted it. 

The first Commission outlined a plan — of comprehensive character, but 
substantially along the lines already advocated by the Public Park Asso- 
ciation, — and the unqualified support that it received from the newspapers 

and from leading or- 
ganizations of every 
sort, gave striking 
testimony indicating 
in how many very 
vital ways such a pro- 
ject touches all classes 
of the people. The 
Commission was con- 
tinued, and in 1906 a 
much more elaborate 
report was presented 
to the Legislature 
together with a request 
that the people of the 
state be given an 




.?:^:'«safiBEa8iKBa»HiBRa^t^iA.-^ 






HOUSE AT LINf'OL 



57 




opportunity to vote 
upon a proposition for 
a bond issue for the 
beginning of the work. 
The Legislature 
shortly approved this 
suggestion without a 
dissenting voice, and 
when the electors 
came to decide the 
question at the fol- 
lowing state election 
in November, they too 
approved it, — by a 
EDGEwooi. liEACH '^otc of two to One. In 

only one large town in 
the state was there an adverse majority. This vote allowed the next 
legislature to issue bonds and to provide proper machinery to bring the 
Metropolitan Park System into being, and thus, Rhode Island became the 
second state in the Union to institute a Metropolitan Park System. 

Upon the plan of this Metropolitan Park District, within an area of about 
eleven miles by seven, that is occupied in 1910 by about 405,000 people 
and has the State House as the geographical centre, are noted the valleys of 
ten rivers of assorted sizes, the shores of the bay, of which almost none is 
held by the public, 
and something like 
forty ponds and lakes. 
There are precipitous 
hillsides from which 
gorgeous views are 
obtained, and 
fragments of wood- 
land that still remain 
to be the joy and 
benefit of their tres- 
passing neighbors. 

Such places are 
seldom fit for ordi- 
nary building pur- 
poses and if not falls at lixcoln woods 

58 




reserved for public lands, soon degenerate into slums. When we choose 
the former alternative, we thereby add value to the surrounding lands, and 
to the city as a whole, that invariably repays all the outlay many fold. 
But let no one advocate that they be made into parks in the old-fashioned 
understanding of that word, for up to recent times city parks have furnished 
a very bad and fantastic imitation of nature; and even though they have 
afforded refreshing scenes of grass and flowers amid the walls of the city, 
they have generally been intended to be looked at with awe rather than 
used with full delight. People were supposed to stroll decorously through 
wonderful curving paths and among magic mazes of geometrical designs, 
with warnings on every hand to keep off the grass under threat of capital 
punishment. Nature was fantastically caricatured by unhappy hedges 
trimmed into weird shapes, and artificial lakes with edges made into prim 
angles and parabolic or diabolic curves. Atrocious iron dogs glared at 
crazy quilts of flowers made into shapes of things that never existed on sea 
or land. Such places served a certain purpose in interesting and surprising 
the eye, even as did the fragile wax bric-a-brac creations under the glass 
domes on the marble topped pador tables of a past generation. Happily 
their day is over, and it is no longer the purpose of the park promoters to 
tack artificial adornments on to the frame work of the city, — nor to create 
mere ornamentation of sand papered hills and marble paved lakes, — but 
rather to preserve natural assets that are vital to the civic welfare. 

The inner ring of the proposed parkways is about eighteen miles in extent, 
while the circuit which encloses Pawtucket on the north and traverses the 
Pawtuxet Valley upon the south would add perhaps twenty miles more, 
but plans avoid the taking of valuable real estate so successfully that 
comparatively little costly land is called for in the provision of park areas 
many hundred acres in extent. 

It would not have seemed possible that within the four mile circle from the 
State House of the most densely populated state in the Union, any tract of 
land could have been discovered, so wild, so primitive, and so apparendy 
remote, as that which the Metropolitan Commission has secured for its 
largest reservation, and dedicated on the one hundredth anniversary of the 
great emancipator's birth, to the memory of the immortal Lincoln. No 
sight of busy cities or of commercial strife disturbs the sweet serenity of the 
Lincoln Woods, where the primeval forest borders the waters of its gem of 
lakes. Over the tops of its encircling hills, the roar of traffic and the clash 
of industry come floating softly as might the hum of bees or music of waters. 

There are gigantic rocks and tangled glades, a winding river at the base 
of the forested hills ; and rolling pastures and meadow lands, where primi- 



tive agriculture has been practised for more than two hundred years. "The 
orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wildwood" are all to be found in 
this beautiful parkland ; and so, too, are old farmhouses that have defied the 
storms since the days when the Indians were their frequent visitors. Yet 
this little wondedand of nature, almost surrounded by the swelling tide of 
population, has somehow escaped destruction all these years. Lincoln 
Woods is a priceless possession for future ages. 

Much nearer to the homes of the multitudes, who can use them every day, 
are the reservations of Edgewood Beach and the Woonasquatucket. There 
was but one stretch of level sandy shore anywhere upon the west side of the 
Bay between the city and Gaspee Point, and by its public ownership, 
unborn millions, as well as present thousands, may put into practice the 
honored principle that "Cleanliness is next to godliness." On account of 
its proximity to the heart of things, it is by far the busiest bathing place in 
the State, though Newport and Narragansett need not tremble for their 
fame as the most fashionable ones. From the Edgewood Bluffs above the 
bathing houses, there are fascmating views of the upper Narragansett, 
where ever-chugging motor boats, white winged yachts, and more majestic 
steamers forever enliven the scene. 

Over at the other end of the city we find the busy Woonasquatucket 
turning the wheels of great mills, but anon resting from its toil and gliding 
peacefully through the Merino meadow, where the toiling thousands of 
the Olneyville district have their only daily playground. Here are ball- 
fields and steep hillside groves, and a tiny, lake, that for those who are not 
old enough or wise enough to play with the river, is safe to wade or paddle 
in. 

Meshanticut Park, with its gem of a lake, is farther from the business 
centre. It is celebrated as the haunt of birds, and is the gift of a generous 
citizen to the State. 

It is doubtful, however, if any part of the Metropolitan System will meet 
with such immediate appreciation by so many classes of people, as the section 
of the Barrington Parkway, which is just now in process of construction, for 
it is rather difficult to recall any other drive leading out from the heart of an 
American city, that combines so many kinds of interesting views in so short 
a distance. 

But, after all, considering the extent of the district to be served, and 
realizing the splendor of the natural gifts that have been bestowed upon the 
favored people of the "Providence Plantations," — gifts which mutely 
plead for preservation that they may remain a part of the public heritage 
forever, — we cannot escape the fact that but a slight beginning has been made. 

60 



There are long and beautiful beaches upon the bay at Bullock's Point and 
Gaspee Point, the latter place made famous by the first act of rebellion in 
the Revolutionary War. There is the commanding bluff of Field s Point, 
whose old fortifications tell again of the Revolution, and command miles of 
glistening bay and busy harbor. From here w^e may proceed through the 
woodlands of Roger Williams Park to the broad waters of Mashapaug 
and on to the exquisite little Lake of Isles, and then to the winding Pocasset, 
now broadened into lakes, and again contracted to a deep and narrow channel 
through sedgy meadows, with the great rocky face of Neutaconkanut Hill 
rising high above the fertile valley. There is the exquisite Scott's Pond, 
though its shores are even now preserved from defilement and maintained 
for recreation purposes by a great mill corporation which owns them. There 
is the broad valley of the Blackstone, surrounded by steep bluffs crowned 
by pine groves, and full of circuitous lagoons and fertile islands ; the Ten 
Mile River, daintily winding under the branches of great trees or rushing 
swiftly through the craggy glen at Hunts Mills. There is the broader Paw- 
tuxet upon which thousands of canoeists and boating enthusiasts enjoy the 
summer days ; and the lake-like Seekonk which will really be a lake when 
the dam at its narrow mouth shall have been built. These places have 
been free in all the past, and by the making of the Metropolitan Park System, 
may still in all the future be the breathing places and recreation grounds at 
the doors of a great and ever increasing industrial population. Wisdom 
and humanity demand their preservation, and their harmonious joining in 
one grand chain as a magnificent possession for all posterity ; — a public 
domain in which the poorest of the people may gain delight and strength 
and claim part ownership ;— a domain that all the wealth of kings could not 
create where nature had been less kind. 




WOONASQUATUCKET RIVER AT DYERVILLE PARK 



61 



"PARKS INSTEAD OF SLUMS" 

On the map of the Metropolitan District opposite, only a few of the 
principal thoroughfares are shown. Blue indicates water area ; Light 
Green shows city parks and grounds of several public institutions; Dark 
Green shows reservations acquired by the Metropolitan Park Commission 
during 1909 and 1910 and Yellow or Buff indicates proposed extension 
of the park system. 

"We find that the rock hills, the stream banks and bay and pond 
shores, are the available and valuable sites for public open spaces ; avail- 
able, because they are generally unoccupied and cheap ; valuable, because 
they present the grandest and the fairest scenery. Private ownership is 
thoroughly bad as a matter of public financial policy. Public ownership 
will so enhance land values that the whole community will profit in the 
end." — Charles Eliot. 



mc, SQ IB, 



^y 




WRITTEN AND COPYRIGHTED ,910, BY HENRY A. BARKER, PROVIDENCE, R. 
CO., PROVIDENCE 



REMINGTON PRII 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



^.,., 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 110 188 2 



M 



